“It is for Lucia that I am grieving. How she must suffer!”
No answer.
“I should like to go there to-day, for half an hour,” she ventured to remark.
“What would be the good of it?”
“Only to comfort Lucia....”
“To-day I can’t go there with you, and you know I don’t care for you to go alone.”
“You are right, I won’t go; we will go together this evening.”
Luncheon was over, but they did not leave the table. Andrea was playing with his breadcrumbs.
“Besides our agent, Scognamiglio, will call to-day. He will bring some money for which you must give him a receipt. Tell him he can make a reduction for the third-floor tenants of No. 79 Via Speronzella. They are poor people.”
“Am I to say anything else to him?”